Tag: cheese

Crustless Mini-Quiches

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I love quiche because I love the four basic components of classic quiche: pork, cheese, custard, and butter crust.

Quiche is one of those things that can be easily pulled together, but it can also be amazingly time-consuming and complicated. The last time that I made quiche, I decided on Thomas Keller’s Quiche Lorraine from the Bouchon Cookbook (a modified version of which appeared in Food and Wine).

The Bouchon quiche may rank up there as one of the most challenging things that I have ever cooked. First of all, at a super deep 2-inches, getting the center to set perfectly is not easy. Secondly, Keller’s recipe instructs you to aerate the egg mixture to the consistency of a sloshy, frothy broth before pouring it into your delicate parbaked crust in 2 stages. And you must do this without the quiche leaking at all.

Tricky. Very tricky.

And I have to admit that I wasn’t entirely successful.

What I am successful at is the standard quiche, perfected over years and years of repetition. Even though I can whip up a butter crust with my eyes shut, it always seems like a big affair because equipment always needs to be pulled out of tight spaces, and countertops need to be cleared to roll out the crust.

And let’s not even talk about the clean-up!

So what to do when you want to get your French on, but find yourself pressed for time, space and energy à l’américaine?

You make a crustless quiche, Silly 😉

Now before you scoff at a crustless quiche, let me just say that I love butter crust. As I might love butter crust even more than the average bear, I thought that I would really miss it in crustless quiches. However, I still thought these were wonderful.

Think of them less as quiches, and more like ham-custard poppers! Or quiche shooters!

The idea to use bread crumbs as a quick and easy base on which to build a crustless quiche comes from Gourmet Magazine. I changed the ratio of eggs to cream to milk so that the quiches would hold together a little better when you remove them from the muffin pan (the original recipe makes just one big quiche).

I used ham and Gruyère, but you can very easily use anything you like: cheddar, broccoli, mushrooms, feta, bacon. The possibilities are endless.

Special Equipment:

A 12-cup muffin pan, preferably non-stick (thanks, Laura! You’re never getting your pan back! Bwahahahaha!)

Ingredients:

1 cup of Panko breadcrumbs (or any other kind of plain breadcrumbs)

1 cup of ham, diced (you could also use a cup of chopped, cooked bacon)

1 cup of Gruyère, shredded

2/3 of a cup of whole milk

2/3 of a cup of heavy cream

4 large eggs

1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg

Salt and white pepper

How to prepare:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°.

2. If you don’t have a non-stick muffin pan, be sure to butter each individual cup well. Cover the bottom of each muffin cup with a layer of bread crumbs.

3. Evenly divide the shredded cheese among all the muffin cups.

4. Do the same with the ham or bacon.

5. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, the cream, the eggs, the nutmeg, and salt and white pepper to taste. Carefully pour the mixture into each muffin cup (this is easier with a spouted bowl or measuring cup). Leave about a 1/4-inch between the top of the egg mixture and the rim of each cup.

6. Bake the quiches until they are set and the tops are golden, about 20 minutes. They will be puffy like a soufflé when you remove them from the oven. Let them settle and cool slightly before removing them from the pan and serving with a nice green salad.

The Daring Kitchen February Cooks’ Challenge: Patties

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Last month, when I opened up the Daring Kitchen‘s Chefs’ Challenge for February, I remember thinking, “Oh. Patties.”

As you can surmise, my initial enthusiasm was less than palpable.

It was a long PDF too, delving somewhat into the history of the patty:

“Irish chef Patrick ‘Patty’ Seedhouse is said to have come up with the original concept and term as we know it today with his first production of burgers utilizing steamed meat pattys – the pattys were ‘packed and patted down,’ and called pattys for short, in order to shape a flattened disc that would enflame with juices once steamed.”

And offering a somewhat of a basic definition:

“Technically patties are flattened discs of ingredients held together by (added) binders (usually eggs, flour or breadcrumbs) usually coated in breadcrumbs (or flour) then fried (and sometime baked).”

I would hesitate to say that anyone “invented” the patty. Flattened discs of pan-fried food seem to be commonly found everywhere, and I imagine that the technique goes as far back to when humans started smushing things together to eat. Maybe it didn’t get codified until much later, but I’m not sure that really matters much as this is the case for a lot of foods.

What kept my attention was that the hosts of this month’s challenge, Lisa and Audax, went into great detail about the technical aspects of patties, providing a kind of matrix for making them:

Main ingredient(s): some kind of ground protein (meat, poultry, seafood, beans or nuts) and/or vegetables.

Binders: eggs, flour, breadcrumbs (fresh or packaged), bran, tofu, mashed potatoes or any kind of mashed vegetable or legume.

Moisteners: water, milk, sour cream, mayonnaise, sauces, mustard, chopped spinach, shredded carrots or zucchini, shredded apples, anything that would add extra moisture if needed.

Technique: shallow pan-frying or baking.

Frying fat: butter, rice bran oil, canola, olive oil, ghee, or any other kind of oil with a relatively high smoking point.

Can you believe that I am such a food nerd that it was actually the 3.5 single-spaced pages of technical patty construction talk that sold me on the idea?

And as tempting (and easy) it would have been to have come up with a recipe on my own — ideas that I had? shrimp, chili pepper, and cilantro patties with some kind of scotch bonnet relish, or something Cantonese-ish like shrimp, corn, and egg whites — the fact is that I have been so overwhelmed with work and school lately that I haven’t had much time to devote to fun things like cooking challenges.

So, dear Readers, please do forgive my inability to milk any extra creative juice out of my brain right now!

These wonderful little quinoa patties are from Heidi Swanson‘s Super Natural Everyday cookbook. They are great for lunch or a light supper. I only made half of the recipe because I just had a cup and a half of leftover quinoa, but you should certainly make the full recipe by doubling the amounts that I list below. The patties keep exceptionally well, and reheat easily in the oven.

One thing I learned from the challenge? My strong suspicion that my stove sits on uneven flooring is once and for all confirmed: all the oil slid to one side of the cast-iron pan while cooking, resulting in patties that were darker on one side than the other.

As soon as I get the time, I’m going to get in there and stick some little wooden wedges under the stove to even it out.

Thank you again Lis and Audax for the technical exercise and great challenge.

And isn’t Audax just the best name ever?

Mandatory blog-checking lines: 

The Daring Cooks’ February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax & Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients and deliciousness! We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties!

Ingredients for Heidi Swanson’s Little Quinoa Patties:

1 1/2 cups of cooked quinoa (you might also use leftover cooked bulgur wheat, millet, rice, or lentils)

2 eggs

Salt

2 tablespoons of chives, chopped

1 small onion, finely chopped

3 tablespoons of freshly grated Parmesan

1 fat garlic clove, very finely chopped

About 1/2 cup of Panko breadcrumbs, plus more if needed

1-2 tablespoons of olive oil or clarified butter

Special equipment:

A 3-inch ring mold

A cast-iron skillet

A lid to fit the skillet

How to prepare:

1. In a large bowl, combine the quinoa and the eggs together with a good pinch of salt. Add the chives, the onion, the Parmesan, and the garlic. Stir in the Panko, and let the mixture sit for a few minutes so that the breadcrumbs can absorb some of the moisture.

2. After a few minutes, you should be able to easily shape the mixture. If it seems a little wet, you can add more Panko to firm up the mixture. Conversely, if you find the mixture too dry, you can add a little water to loosen it up.

Swanson recommends erring on the moist side so that the patties won’t be overly dry — which is what I would recommend as well. As I left the quinoa mixture on the moist side, I found that it was easier to use a ring mold to make the patties instead of using my hands to shape them.

Set a ring mold on a plate and fill it with about three heaping spoonfuls of the quinoa mixture. Spread the mixture out evenly in the mold. Lightly compress each one by pressing on the top of the patty with the bottom of a spoon. Carefully remove the mold. Continue until you have used up all of the quinoa mixture. You should have about 6-7 patties total (or about 12 if you make the full recipe).

3. Heat the olive oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat until it begins to shimmer slightly. Using a thin, flexible spatula, carefully transfer the patties to the skillet. You should be able to fit in all six with a little room in-between each one. Cover the skillet and let the patties cook for about 7-10 minutes. The bottoms should be deeply browned, but not burnt. Carefully flip the patties and cook them on the other side for about 7 more minutes. When both side are evenly colored, transfer the patties to a paper towel-lined plate.

Serve warm with a nice green salad.

Cauliflower and Ham Gratin with Sourdough Rye Breadcrumbs

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A few days ago at the CSA pick-up, a member came in and said, “It’s snowing! It’s snowing!”

Was it finally winter finally? By the time I got outside, the scant millimeter of snow that we got had melted and the skies were clear. And it was warming up again.

I think that the season has been toying with me, bringing week after week of warm spring-like days alternating with gusty arctic ones. For someone who likes matching my meals to the season, this has all made for some pretty schizophrenic eating. I have found myself wanting to nibble on mâche and radishes, and then wanting to bury myself under cheese and carbs the next day.

As it is currently quite chilly, I feel like I need to hurry up and cook some cold-weather food before the temps climb back up to 60°. This cauliflower gratin fits the bill quite well. It is basically a macaroni and cheese, with the cauliflower filling in for the mac — which makes it feel somewhat healthier!

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower, cut into small florets

1 1/2 cups of ham, diced

1 clove of garlic, lightly smashed

1 1/2 cups of aged cheese (I used an aged farmstead cheese from Snow Farm Creamery, but you could use an aged Gruyère, or another good, firm earthy cheese)

1/4 cup of flour

4 tablespoons of butter, plus 1 tablespoon

4 cups of milk

1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg

Salt and pepper

1 cup of sourdough rye breadcrumbs (or any other bread you might have one hand: sourdough, rye, brown . . .)

How to prepare:

1. Preheat the over to 350°. Rub a large ceramic or clay baking dish with the smashed clove of garlic.

2. Combine the cauliflower florets with the ham in a large bowl.

3. In a medium-sized sauce pan, melt the 4 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat. Once the butter has melted, stir in the flour. Cook the flour for about a two or three minutes (you want to get rid of that raw, floury taste). Once the flour has toasted a little, add the milk all at once and whisk everything together. Add the nutmeg. Raise the heat to medium, and continue to whisk the sauce as it thickens. Once the sauce has thickened, turn off the heat and stir in the cheese. Continue stirring until all the cheese has melted. Adjust the seasoning.

4. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower and the ham. Stir everything together until the cauliflower is evenly coated. Tip everything into the baking dish.

5. Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter. Toss the breadcrumbs in the melted butter, and then spread them evenly over the top of the cauliflower.

6. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the gratin top is browned. The sides should be nice and bubbly too. Let rest for about ten minutes before serving.

Individual Beef and Green Herb Pies with Yeasted Whole Wheat Crust

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This recipe finds its origins in another recipe from Deborah Madison. As some of you know, when I was a vegetarian, I cooked my way through her Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I learned so much from that book: how to prep, how to cook vegetables (trickier, I think, than meat), how to not be afraid of trying things I had never eaten before (cardoons? sorrel anyone?), and how to improvise (the most important lesson of all).

In 2001, the Times released a collection of recipes gathered from its most popular chef contributors, including Madison. The Chefs of the Times is a great cookbook to have, not just because the dishes are all terrific, but because each one is prefaced by a short introduction in which the chefs talk about how they got to the final versions of the recipes found in the book, from inspiration to execution.

It was here that I found Madison’s interpretation of the traditional Tuscan torta d’erbe. A torta d’erbe is, in essence, a very rustic dish normally comprising of whatever greens or vegetables you have one hand, bound together with beaten eggs, ricotta, and/or parmesan, and baked in a pastry crust.

Madison does a different take on the traditional pastry by cutting the amount of fat in the dough, and using yeast to lighten it and make it flaky. In the published recipe, she had you make a covered pie in a tart tin. However, when I started making it, I would just divide the dough in two and make a great big free-form tart.

Now I go one step further and made individual hand pies. I also use just olive oil for the crust (instead of butter, or a mixture of butter and olive oil), and do a mix of whole wheat and all-purpose flour.

These hand pies are the year’s real first stab at something a little healthier to eat. They are full of good things that are good for you.

To turn the recipe back into a vegetarian one, simply omit the ground beef, and double the amount of ricotta. In either case, if you would like to make the pies a little richer, you can add about 3 ounces of grated parmesan, or crumbled feta cheese to the filling.

Ingredients:

1 package of active dry yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)

1/2 teaspoon of sugar

1 cup of warm whole milk

Salt

3 eggs

8 tablespoons of olive oil

1 cup of all-purpose flour

2 cups of whole wheat flour

1 medium onion, chopped

1 pound of very lean ground beef

1 cup of fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 cup of fresh dill, chopped

1/2 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped

2 bunches (about 6 cups) of spinach, roughly chopped

1 bunch of trimmed chard (about 3 cups), roughly chopped

1/2 a cup of whole-milk ricotta

The zest of one lemon

Freshly ground black pepper

How to prepare:

1. In a small bowl, combine the yeast with the warm milk and the sugar.

2. In a large bowl, mix the 2 flours together with a hefty pinch of salt. Make a well in the center of the flour for the olive oil and just one of the eggs. Using your hands, combine the flour with the oil and the egg until the mixture is nice and crumbly. Add the yeast-milk mixture all at once, and knead the dough together by hand until it is relatively smooth. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover it with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise in a warm, dark place for about an hour.

3. In the meantime, sauté the onion in a large skillet with a little bit of olive oil over medium-high heat until it is no longer opaque. Once the onion begins to turn golden, crumble the ground beef into the skillet. Cook the meat until it is no longer pink. When the ground beef begins to brown, add the herbs to it. Continue to cook everything until most of the water has evaporated. The herbs should be softened, but still bright. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the meat mixture to large bowl, leaving behind as much liquid as possible. If there seems to be a lot of liquid, drain the beef mixture as best as you can. Adjust the seasoning.

4. To the same skillet, add the spinach. Cook it over medium heat until it wilts. Remove it to a colander. Repeat the process with the chard. When the spinach and the chard are cool enough to handle, use your hands to press as much liquid as possible out of the leaves to remove the moisture.

5. Combine the meat and herb mixture, the wilted greens, the lemon zest, the ricotta and one egg. Adjust the seasoning, and divide the mixture into 8 equal parts.

6. Preheat the oven to 375°.

7. When the dough is ready, divide it into 8 equal parts. Roll each part into a ball. Flatten out each ball of dough with your hands before rolling it out into a round about to an 1/8th of an inch thick, and about 6 to 7 inches in diameter. You can do this on a lightly floured surface if needed, but because of the olive oil, the dough shouldn’t be very sticky. Mound a portion of filling in the center of the dough. Fold the dough over the filling, making a half-moon shape. Lightly press the air out of the filling as you seal the pie around its edges. Trim the pie so that there is about a half-inch border all the way around. Use the tines of a fork to make impressions around the pie. Cut three even slits into the top. Repeat these steps for the remaining 7 pies.

8. Evenly position the hand pies on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You may need more than one baking sheet. Beat the last remaining egg. Using a pastry brush, gently brush each pie with the beaten egg. Bake the pies for about 35 minutes.

Serve hot, room temperature, or cold.

Irish Bacon, Reserve Farmstead Cheese and Chive Drop Biscuits

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Okay, I swear that I am going to start this new year right and get myself in the gym this week.

Many of my friends would be shaking their heads in disbelief mildly surprised to learn that I have a gym membership. I actually never talk about it because the last time that I went to the gym was in June. Yes, you read that correctly: June. My gym is open 24/7 during the week, and when I was going, I liked to slink in about 11pm or midnight when it was completely empty. That way, I could do as little as possible without feeling self-conscious about it.

But I digress . . .

I made these drop biscuits with the other wedge of CSA cheese (we get two different kinds at every pick-up), and the remaining Irish bacon from my CSA. The texture of home-made biscuits is always better than anything you could buy. Plus, they are so easy to pull together and so quick to bake, that you will want to make them all the time.

And I promise to get in better shape . . . as soon as I polish off these biscuits.

* This post was actually written the day after the Horseradish Cheddar and Irish Bacon Mac & Cheese one. However, in the whole hubbub following the Daring Cooks’ challenge, I haven’t had time to post it until today. In the meanwhile, amazingly awesome SweaterMeat posted her Cheesy Breakfast Biscuit Sandwiches on her blog, Ugly Food Tastes Better. If you haven’t already dropped by, check out blog and her biscuits!

The point being that there must be something in the air right now about drop biscuits!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

3/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

6 tablespoons of butter, cubed

6.5 ounces of reserve farmstead cheese (or really any kind of aged cheese), grated

1/2 cup of chives, chopped

1/2 pound of cooked Irish bacon, cut into 1/2-inch strips

1 1/2 cups of whole milk or buttermilk

How to prepare:

1. Preheat the oven to 450°.

2. Combine the flour, the baking powder, the baking soda, and the salt together in a large bowl. Add the cubes of butter. Using your fingertips, blend the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.

3. Stir in the grated cheese, the chives, and the bacon. Add the milk or the buttermilk all at once. Continue to stir until all the ingredients are just combined.

4. Drop the dough in twelve equal mounds about an inch or two apart on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake the biscuits until they are golden, about 18 to 20 minutes.

The Daring Kitchen January Cooks’ Challenge: Red Chili Pork and Poblano and Cheese Tamales

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As many of you know, I signed up a few months ago to participate in the The Daring Kitchen‘s monthly challenges. The basic premise of the Daring Kitchen is that you sign up for one of two groups: The Daring Bakers or The Daring Cooks. Once confirmed, you will be tasked with either a baking or a cooking challenge (depending on which group you joined), and given one month to complete the challenge. All members upload their completed dishes to their blogs on the same day.

Well, today is the day, and this month’s challenge was tamales.

I love tamales. I have always wanted to try them at home, but never have because I was always intimidated by how much work everyone said they were to make.

“Pain in the ass,” said one friend.

“Why don’t you just buy them?” asked another.

“You don’t have enough room to make tamales!” exclaimed yet another friend.

Well, now I can tell you that you can make tamales in a studio apartment kitchen without an army of willing friends and family to help.

I know because I just did it!

This blog post is a little different from my normal recipe posts. First of all, I am going to show you the recipe step-by-step with photos. This will make the post a lot longer, but I hope that it will also give me a chance to walk you through the challenge and show you what I did, why I did it, what I thought worked, and what I would have done differently knowing what I know now.

But before we get started, I need to include the monthly challenge’s mandatory blog-checking lines: “Maranda of Jolts & Jollies was our January 2012 Daring Cooks hostess with the mostess! Maranda challenged us to make traditional Mexican Tamales as our first challenge of the year!”

For Maranda’s challenge, a lot of freedom was given to us to choose our own tamale recipe and improvise as we saw fit. This was a little different from some other cooks’ challenges that I have seen, but after making tamales, I see that it made a lot of sense. For me, some ingredients were not that easy to find. I can imagine for others that a lot of substitutions would be pretty much necessary. Also, like a lot of people, I didn’t want to buy any special equipment. Thankfully, as I found out, there are as many ways to steam a tamal as there are ways to roast a chicken.

Tamales are not difficult to make, but they are very time-consuming. You will probably need to set aside a whole day to pull them together. Be sure to read the recipe ahead of time. What takes the most time is just waiting for different components of the tamales to cook, soak, rest, etc.

That being said, let’s get on with it.

Ingredients:

For the red chili pork filling (adapted from Rick Bayless):

1/3 of a cup of good-quality chili powder, preferably without salt

3/4 teaspoon of salt if the chili powder has no salt (omit this if salt is included in the spice powder)

1 pound of boneless pork shoulder

2 tablespoons of masa harina

1/4 cup of golden raisins, chopped

1/4 cup of pitted green olives, chopped

Salt

For the poblano chili and cheese filling (adapted from Diana Kennedy):

3 fresh poblano peppers

10 ounces of Queso Chihuahua, or Monterey Jack if Chihuahua cheese is not available

About 1/2 cup of salsa verde

For the rest:

2 to 3 3-ounce packages of dried corn husks

10 ounces of rendered leaf lard, or vegetable shortening if lard is unavailable, softened but not runny

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

3 1/2 cups of dried or instant masa harina for tamales

2 1/4 cups of hot water

1 to 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth

Salt

How to prepare:

1. Find all your ingredients.

This alone took about a day of calling around town and shopping. You would think that living in New York City would make it relatively easy to procure ingredients for tamales, but the truth is that though the size of the Mexican community is growing, it is still not particularly sizable compared to other ethnic populations in the city.

I could have gone all the way up to Corona to the very excellent Tortilleria Nixtamal for fresh masa, but Corona is super far from the East Village. So dried, or instant, masa it was going to be.

Luckily, I do live relatively close to Zaragoza Mexican Deli and Grocery on Avenue A. If you have never been to Zaragoza, I would highly recommend it. Outside, it looks like any other deli. Let’s admit it: inside it doesn’t look like much either. “Deli and Grocery” is a bit of a generous statement too given that when you walk in, the “deli” part consists of a two-foot long counter packed with cigarettes and lottery tickets. The “grocery” looks like a crammed wall of dimly lit cans. You would totally be amazed, though, at what they have. It’s almost like magic; rarely have I asked for something that they didn’t stock.

In the back of the deli, there are a few tables set up for food. Zaragoza does homemade tacos, sandwiches, rice and beans, and soup. It’s all very fresh and really delicious — which is why I opted to buy a quart each of their salsa roja and salsa verde instead of making my own.

Tamales are enough work on their own without my having to worry about making sauces too. Plus, Zaragoza’s salsas are really fantastic.

The other challenge was procuring the lard. Lard is relatively easy to find, but I always think that if there is any animal product that reveals most distinctively what the animal ate and how the animal was treated, it’s the animal’s fat. So I wanted to buy good lard.

And I wanted someone else to render it for me because I don’t like rendering fat very much.

Yeah, I’m a pussy like that.

That took me to Dickson’s Farmstand Meats in Chelsea Market. They stock rendered leaf lard — the highest quality lard you can get, made from the soft, visceral fat that surrounds kidneys and loins of the pig. It is pure, pillowy, snowy whiteness, and smells like the cleanest, most pristine pork rind ever.

While I was there, I picked up a pound of pork shoulder. Had I more time, I would have defrosted some awesome pork shoulder from my CSA. Unfortunately, I didn’t plan ahead so I had to buy it. Not only did the butcher at Dickson’s cut me .8 of a pound instead of a full pound, but about half of that was fat and connective tissue. After cooking, I think that I had less than half a pound of pork for tamal filling.

And no, the butcher did not show me the meat before wrapping it up. I know. I should have asked, but I was in a hurry.

To Dickson’s Farmstand Meats: BOO! #BUTCHERFAIL!

To Manhattan Fruit Exchange, also in Chelsea Market, thank you for stocking Chihuahua Cheese and poblano peppers.

To any Daring Cooks out there: did anyone use bacon fat instead of lard?

2. Soak your corn husks.

For my tamales, I was torn between using the eminent Diana Kennedy’s recipe, or Rick Bayless’ recipe. In the end, I used a little bit from both, with sprinkles of tricks and suggestions from a bunch of Youtube clips.

But the tamal dough recipe that I used is Bayless’ because Kennedy’s recipe frankly scared me: she asks for you to take the wide, white corn used for pozole, soak it overnight, use your fingers to rub the skin off each individual kernel, let the kernels dry in the sun for two days, grind the corn in a mill, sift it, and then grind and sift it again.

No joke. That is seriously hard core.

So Bayless it was.

His recipe is for 26 tamales, and he suggests buying about 8 ounces of corn husks. I bought 3 packages of corn husks that weighed 3 ounces each. I had a ton of corn husks left over, but I reasoned that it was better to be on the safe side and have too many than too few.

Bayless recommends soaking the corn husks in hot water for a couple of hours, but I would recommend doing it for much longer if not overnight. I soaked mine for about 4, and some were still not completely pliable.

• Take a large roasting pan and arrange the corn husks in it. Cover them with hot water until they are completely submerged. Weight them down with a heavy plate or dish for about 4 hours, or even overnight.

3. Make the red chili pork filling.

• In a medium sauce pan, whisk the chili powder and the salt if needed with about 3 cups of water. Add the pork shoulder to the pan and bring the liquid up to a boil. When the liquid is boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the pork, partially covered, for about an hour. The meat should be falling-apart tender. Let the meat cool slightly in the broth before removing it to a plate. Do not get rid of the cooking liquid.

• In a separate bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of masa harina with about 1/2 a cup of water to make a slurry. Bring the remaining cooking liquid to a simmer over medium-high heat. Strain the masa slurry. Discard the solids, and whisk the strained liquid into the remaining cooking liquid. Continue to simmer the sauce until it has reduced by about half and has thickened. Be sure to skim the surface of any fat or foam as the sauce cooks down.

• As the chili sauce reduces, use two forks to break up the pork shoulder into shreds. In a bowl, toss the pork with the chopped raisins and olives. Add the reduced sauce, little by little, until the pork is well-moistened and evenly coated. The pork should not be swimming in liquid. You can use any leftover sauce to serve your tamales.

• Adjust the seasoning.

4. Prep the poblano chilies and the cheese.

• If you have a gas range, set the poblano peppers directly onto the gas burners with the heat on high. Turn the peppers periodically to make sure that their skins char evenly. Poblano peppers have relatively thin skins compared to bell peppers, so watch them carefully as they will char quickly.

If you have an electric range, rub the peppers with olive oil and place them on a cookie sheet set underneath the broiler. You can also rub the peppers with olive oil and pop them into a 450° oven. Remove them when their skins are blistered and blackened.

• When your peppers are nice and charred, put them in a clean plastic grocery bag or a small paper bag and wait for them to cool. When they are cool enough to handle, you should be able to gently rub off all the charred skin from the pepper using a paper towel. Seed the peppers, and discard the seeds and stems. Cut the peppers into strips.

• Cut the cheese into small bars, about 1/2 an inch thick and about 2 1/2 inches long.

5. Prepare the tamal dough.

The first thing you need to do if you do not have fresh masa is to reconstitute dried or instant masa harina for tamales. Bayless recommends 3 1/2 cups of masa harina to 2 1/4 cups of hot water.

I did this by stirring in the water with a wooden spoon, which I really feel was a mistake because the dough was so stiff and hard to manipulate that I felt it three days later.

I think I have tennis elbow now.

Only after I made the tamales did I see that someone had suggested mixing the hot water into the masa flour with your hands, like bread dough.

Now they tell me!

So even though I haven’t tried it myself, it is what I would suggest that you do.

• In a large bowl, using your hands, mix the masa harina with the hot water until the dough begins to pull together into a large mass.

Now it takes a lot of lard to make tamales. However, in lard’s defense, it is probably much better for you than vegetable shortening. Furthermore, Diana Kennedy points out that despite the scary amount of lard needed to make tamal dough, “it is absorbed by the husk and transpires into the water.”

So it just disappears?! All that lard just disappears?!?! Oh my gosh. It’s FREAKIN’ MAGIC!!!

Regardless whether or not you believe Kennedy, for the absolute best tasting tamales, you should use lard.

I suppose that there are some people out there who like their tamales dense as rocks. I prefer the masa soft and airy. The best way to achieve this is to really whip that lard until it is light and fluffy, like creaming butter for a cake.

I would not recommend you do this by hand.

• If you have a Kitchenaid mixer, use that. If not, use a hand blender. Cream together the softened lard, the baking powder, and the salt on high speed until it is light in texture.

• When the lard is fluffy, keep the mixer running and add the reconstituted masa a handful at a time. Once all the masa is incorporated, add about 1 cup of chicken broth. Continue beating the mixture for about another minute or two. Bayless says that the texture should be like a soft, but not runny, cake batter, but I think it’s more like a super fluffy cookie dough.

Ideally, a dollop of tamal dough it will float in a glass of water when you have achieved tamal dough perfection. This didn’t happen to me the first time that I tested it, and I figured out it was because I had added too much water to the reconstituted masa. It was only after I added more masa flour, a little bit at a time to compensate for the extra moisture, that I got it right.

• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the tamal dough rest in the refrigerator for about an hour. After an hour, rebeat the tamal dough, adding a little more chicken broth if it needs it. Retest it by seeing if a dollop of the dough floats.

• Adjust the seasoning.

6. Form the tamales.

Now we’re in the home stretch!

I must say that I watched a lot of Youtube clips to get this right. Most recipes that I read said to use a spoon or a spatula to spread the dough over the corn husks. That is what Zarela Martinez did, and well, she’s Zarela Martinez!

However, I proved to be some kind of tamale-making flunky and couldn’t manage to spread the dough thinly across the corn husks without tearing them. After a few ruined attempts, I checked out this brilliant Youtube clip that showed how to lay a piece of plastic wrap over the masa to smooth it out gently without any tearing.

Whoever you are in Youtube land, you are amazing.

• Rinse the soaked corn husks (there might be some dead bugs stuck to them), and shake them dry before rolling your tamales.

• Lay a corn husk out so that it fans away from you. Drop a dollop of about 1/4 cup of tamal dough in the middle of the upper center of the husk. Lay a piece of plastic wrap over the top of it, and use your hands to smooth the dough out in a thin layer. Make sure the dough goes all the way to the top edge, but be sure to leave a “border” of corn husk on either side. The spread-out dough should be roughly in a 4-inch square shape.

I watched a several different ways to fold tamales. I tried two ways, one of which I would recommend, and the other one I wouldn’t. The most common way that I saw online was to start on one side of the corn husk and roll the tamal like you would a jelly roll. This is what Zarela Martinez shows in her Youtube clip.

Rolling a tamal like a jelly roll is just a terrible idea because when you unwrap the tamal after it has steamed, instead of a nice compact shape, you have the potential for a sloppy mess. The tamales shown in the picture above were rolled this way. These two held their shape a little better than some of the others, but not nearly as well as the ones I rolled in the way recommended by Bayless (which are shown in the first picture of this blog post).

I kind of wish I had done them all Bayless’ way.

Bayless recommends that you after you spread the tamal dough over the upper center of the corn husk, you pick the tamal up by its two long edges to bring the sides in together. Tuck one edge in under the dough, and wrap the other edge around the tamal.

To help visualize this, here is a handy Youtube clip.

Instead of piecing two smaller corn husks together, as you might have to do if you had bought just enough, Bayless asks that you buy extra corn husks so that you can pick out the biggest and prettiest ones to roll.

• Once the dough is smoothed out in a thin layer that extends all the way to the edge of the top of the husk, it is time to fill the tamal. For the pork tamales, mound a good spoonful of filling along the center of the dough. For the chili and cheese tamales, Put about a teaspoon of salsa verde down the center of the dough. Lay 3 poblano chili strips down on top of the salsa, followed by a piece (or two) of cheese.

• Now bring the two long edges of the corn husk together. This will cause the tamal dough to surround the filling. Gently pinch or push together the opposite sides of the dough so that you make a good seam. Tuck one edge of the corn husk under the tamal, and wrap the other side over the whole thing — kind of like swaddling a baby. Finally, fold up the empty “tail” of the tamal, leaving the top open.

7. Steam your tamales.

Bayless’s recipe should make about 16 red chili pork tamales, but given that I didn’t have much meat to work with, I ended up with only twelve. His tamal dough recipe should be enough for 26 tamales. As I had to add more flour to make up for the extra liquid that I added, I ended up with 29 tamales. Pretty accurate, Rick!

You can buy tamale steamers, which are pretty darn inexpensive (about $20), but I certainly don’t have the room to store any more specialized cookware. Moreover, I didn’t want to spend money for what is basically just a stock pot and a metal insert.

There are many different ways to steam tamales. You could use those Chinese bamboo steamers, or one of those fancy electric steamers. I even saw some Youtube clips of people steaming them in rice cookers.

I used a tall stock pot and one of those inexpensive pop-open steamer baskets, about $7. If you don’t have a steamer basket, you can improvise by coiling up a kitchen towel or crumpling up a large piece of aluminum foil into a flattened sphere, placing that on the bottom of your pot, and leaning your tamales up against it.

To visualize this, here are two handy Youtube clips:

Steaming Tamales: Louis D. Garcia explains his way
Zarela Martinez’s Tamales 1, 2, 3

The only disadvantage to doing it this way is that the bottom of your tamales will be submerged in water. But at least you didn’t have to buy anything!

• Place your stainless steel basket steamer in the bottom of a large stock pot. Add about two to three cups of water. The water should come up about an inch from the bottom of the pot, but it should not touch the bottom of the basket. Most steamer baskets have little “feet,” but if yours doesn’t, you can rest the steamer basket on either a ring of aluminum foil, or on little balls of aluminum foil to keep it elevated.

• Set the tamales in the pot vertically. To make this easier, you can tie three to four tamales together (folded tails facing in) with kitchen string, and then set them in the steamer in groups. Or you can just be stubborn like me and fiddle around with them until you get all the tamales in there. If you find that there is a lot of space between your tamales, you can ball up more aluminum foil and insert the balled up foil in-between the tamales and the sides of the pot.

• Tuck some leftover corn husks in-beween the pot and the tamales. Fold them over the top of the tamales like flower petals.

• At this point, if you are able to cover your pot with its lid, do so. If you cannot put the lid on the pot, improvise by wrapping a few large pieces of aluminum foil over everything and very tightly around the pot. Make sure there are no gaps or holes.

• Turn the heat on medium-low. Steam the tamales for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Some recipes suggest only about 40 to 45 minutes of steaming time. However, I think with tamales, the extra time is needed so that the super-absorbent masa swells in the steamer and not in your stomach. After an hour and 15 minutes, your tamales will not be overcooked or mushy. They will be perfect.

8. Invite friends over to eat your tamales.

• When your tamales are done steaming, carefully remove the lid or the aluminum foil. Beware of hot steam. Peel the corn husks away from the center. Let the tamales stand in the steamer for about 15 minutes to firm up before serving.

I made these tamales on New Year’s Eve. Start to finish, they took me roughly 7 hours. Most of that time was spent just waiting for things to finish soaking, cooking, resting, etc.

Thank you to Joseph and Sharon for being my tamale guinea pigs, and for ringing in the New Year with me! Here’s to 2012!

9. Eat leftover tamales the next day with fried eggs on top.

Tamales for breakfast lunch late lunch are the best ever. You can reheat them by either steaming them until they are heated through, or throwing them in the microwave for a minute or two if you are super hungover lazy like me. Serve them with a couple of fried eggs on top for a very delicious meal.

And that is how I made tamales for New Year’s. Thank you Maranda at Jolts & Jollies for the amazing challenge. I loved the idea, as well as being able to start the new year by cooking something new.

Now onto the next one!

Horseradish Cheddar and Irish Bacon Mac & Cheese

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Already I can see that the beginning of the new year is going to be a tug-of-war between the wanting-to-detox me, and the part of me that thinks that butter and cheese are inalienable rights to be defended Minutemen-style with muskets and bayonets.

I know that I swore to lighten things up after the holidays, but after about a day of that, I was starving. And when you’re starving, you need carbs. You need fat. You ideally need carbs and fat baked together with bacon.

I suppose that if you wanted to make this slightly healthier, you could substitute whole wheat pasta for the regular pasta, but I have never been the biggest fan of whole wheat pasta. Maybe it’s a texture thing.

I used the horseradish cheddar cheese (what was left of it after New Year’s), and the Irish bacon from my farmer to pull this together. Two, count ’em, two CSA products in one dish! Whoo hoo!

Ingredients:

1 pound of pasta (I used casarecce)

1/2 pound of Irish or Canadian bacon, cut into 1/2-inch strips

6.5 ounces of horseradish cheddar cheese, coarsely grated

4 tablespoons of butter, plus one tablespoon

1/4 cup of flour

1 quart of whole milk

Salt and pepper

About 1/2 cup of panko, or breadcrumbs

Fresh chives

How to prepare:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the pasta and cook it until it is slightly under al dente. Drain it, and set it aside as you prepare the rest of the dish.

2. While the pasta is cooking, brown the Irish bacon in a large skillet. As Irish bacon is leaner than regular bacon, it will not be as crispy when cooked. Once the strips are browned and most the fat has rendered, transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.

3. In a medium-sized sauce pan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat. Once the butter has melted, stir in the flour. Cook the flour for about a minute or two (you want to get rid of that raw, floury taste). Once the flour has toasted a little, add the milk all at once and whisk everything together. Raise the heat to medium, and continue to whisk the sauce occasionally as it thickens.

4. Once the sauce has thickened, turn off the heat and stir in the cheese. Continue stirring until all the cheese has melted. Adjust the seasoning.

5. In a large bowl, combine the pasta, the bacon, and the cheese sauce. Spoon the mixture into a large buttered baking dish.

6. In a small sauce pan, melt the remaining tablespoon of butter over low heat. Toss the panko or breadcrumbs in the butter, and then spread them evenly over the top of the pasta. Bake the mac & cheese for about 30 minutes. The top should be golden brown, and the cheese sauce should be bubbly. If the cheese sauce is bubbling, but the top has yet to brown, you can pop the dish under the broiler for a minute or two to toast the breadcrumbs.

Let the dish rest for about 10 to 15 minutes before topping it with freshly snipped chives and serving.

Meat Week NYC Starts Today!

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Organized by our friends over at Jimmy’s 43, Meat Week NYC kicks off today with a Meat and Cocktails party at City Winery. General tickets are $45, but include lots of goodies like duck liver-beef brisket boudin balls and beer, and crispy pan seared polenta crostini topped with braised buffalo short ribs and Cabernet Franc. A complete list of nibblies and drinks can be had here.

There are also tons of other great events going on throughout the week, should tonight not work out for you.

Go to Meat Week NYC’s official site for more information.

I’ll be at the event tonight, as well as at the Sustainable Meat Panel and the Film Screening at Jimmy’s to represent High Point Farms!

So that means you should definitely come out 🙂

Sign-up for High Point Farms Winter CSA!

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High Point Farms still has space for more members! Sign up today for their Winter CSA, beginning December 14 and running until February 22.

This is a fantastic opportunity to plan ahead for delicious dishes for the holidays, Valentine’s Day (nothing says lovin’ like red meat), and the Superbowl (mini-meatballs? nachos? chili?).

Plus, you get that warm, wonderful feeling knowing that you are supporting sustainable local farming and Earth-friendly agricultural practices!

This season there are three pick-up locations:

In the East Village:

Jimmy’s 43 (43 E. 7th Street between Second and Third Avenues)

In Williamsburg: 

CrossFit Virtuosity Williamsburg (221 North 8th St, between Driggs and Roebling)

In Fort Greene:

Five Spot Soul Food (459 Myrtle Ave)

The pick-up dates for this distribution cycle are:

• December 14
• December 28
• January 11
• January 25
• February 8
• February 22

Pick-up time:

4:30PM to 7:00 PM, every other Wednesday

Two share options are available:

• Beef, chicken, and pork
• Beef and chicken

There are also absolutely amazing eggs and cheese too!

Sign up and come meet your meat! Also, download our flier and help us spread the word about the farm! Click, print, and get the word out!

Ricotta-Topped Rigatoni with Tomato, Sausage, and Kale Sauce

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I have a new love: Jersey Farms Crushed Tomatoes.

I can eat them straight out of the can. Seriously. They just taste so rich and, well, tomatoey.

All of the tomatoes come from just 6 cooperative farms in New Jersey. Once picked, they are canned within 24 hours with no added water or preservatives, only a little salt. The crushed tomatoes are thick, but not too thick. They are perfect. Just perfect. You almost don’t need any seasoning at all. You practically don’t even need to cook them.

But if you do cook with them, whoa golly, are you in for a treat. These tomatoes make the best pizza sauce. The best anything, really.

Using some mild beef sausage from my CSA, I made a quick sauce with just garlic, olive oil, and some extra kale I had in the fridge. After rolling some al dente rigatoni in it for a couple of minutes, I topped everything with a sloppy spoonful of creamy, locally-made ricotta. A little drizzle of olive oil to add an extra bit of luster.

And I tell you, it was delicious.

Ingredients:

2 cloves of garlic, finely minced

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 pound mild Italian beef sausage, casings removed

Red pepper flakes to taste

1 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes (preferably Jersey Farms Crushed Tomatoes)

2 cups of kale, chopped with the ribs removed

Salt and pepper

1 pound of rigatoni

Whole milk ricotta cheese

More olive oil for drizzling

How to prepare:

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large casserole, or Dutch oven. When the oil begins to shimmer, sauté the garlic in it until it is fragrant. The garlic should just begin to have a little bit of color, but not too much. Crumble the sausage into the oil, and cook it until it is evenly browned (be sure to break up larger pieces of sausage with the edge of your spoon as you cook). Add as many red pepper flakes as you like. Toss the red pepper flakes with the browned sausage for about a minute before adding the tomatoes.

2. Carefully pour in the crushed tomatoes. If the sauce seems too thick to you, you can add some water to thin it out a little bit. Stir everything together. Lower the heat, and let the sauce simmer for about 15-20 minutes before adding the kale.

3. In the meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to boil. When the water begins boiling, add the pasta and cook it until it is al dente.

4. Let the kale wilt in the sauce while the pasta cooks. Adjust the seasoning.

5. When the pasta is done, drain it well. You will add about a ladleful of sauce per 1/4 pound of pasta. Toss everything together, and then divide the pasta into warmed bowls.

6. Top each serving of pasta with a nice, fat dollop of ricotta cheese. Drizzle some olive oil on top of everything. Before eating, be sure to mix the ricotta into the pasta with your fork!